Gulf Aviation Academy (GAA) the Kingdom’s first aviation training academy, and Bahrain Polytechnic (BP) have announced signing a comprehensive memorandum of understanding as a basis to start discussing further collaboration between the two parties on the development and delivery of various transport based training and education courses in Bahrain.

This agreement is the first of its kind in Bahrain, and will allow the Academy and BP to work together on combining and centralizing aviation and maritime training under one roof. As an authorized training center, GAA will be providing IATA courses to the Polytechnic’s Logistics Program. GAA in turn will benefit from the education partnership that Bahrain Polytechnic has developed with the Chartered Institute of Logistics Transport (CILT) with the potential for the future development of a full CILT center based at GAA.

On this occasion, Capt. Dhaffer Al Abbasi, Acting Chief Executive Officer, GAA, stated, “This kind of venture between our two entities has many advantages that will serve the Kingdom of Bahrain in positioning itself as the training logistics hub of the region. Our aim is to unite the training facilities by efficiently investing in the pools of resources of both companies will further develop their training portfolios.” He further said, “GAA certainly realizes the importance of this partnership as this falls in line with our commitment to deliver our world class services and training programmes to organisations aspiring for growth and development in the region.”

Dr. Mohammed Al Aseeri, Acting Chief Executive Officer of Bahrain Polytechnic noted, “Bahrain Polytechnic has strategic goals of delivering work ready graduates to industry that are both professionally and degree qualified. Working in partnership with GAA will allow for Bahrain Polytechnic students to be integrated within an industry setting while studying. There are also other long term opportunities to jointly develop training partnerships with other transport and logistics based professional organizations for the benefit of Bahraini already working or seeking employment in the transport and logistics industries.” “This collaboration proves to be a great addition to the academic programs offered by the Polytechnic; creating more opportunities for students through up-to-date practices and professional academic development,” said Dr. Al-Aseeri.

Dr Al-Aseeri added, “As per Bahrain’s Vision 2030 and the government work program 2011-2014, we are working hard to meet their goals [of achieving a more enhanced education]. We are collaborating with various institutes across the globe in various fields in order to make certain we deliver topnotch education to our students.” “I would also like to thank the hard-working staff of the Polytechnic which made this signing possible; making a great effort and constantly trying to meet our mission and values,” concluded Dr. Al-Aseeri.

The Academy commenced operations after its launch in early 2010, and is now one of the few internationally certified aviation training centres in the region, offering a wide range of high quality aviation training solutions. The Academy’s facilities and equipment at Bahrain International Airport are all state of the art, modern and designed around the customer.

GAA is a an EASA approved ATO in additional to being approved by Bahrain, Saudi, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Jordon ,Pakistan and Aruba and offers a wide range of high quality aviation training solutions for the aviation industry in the Middle East, Asia and North Africa region. GAA’s Simulator Centre currently has seven simulator bays with the capacity to train thousands of pilots annually. The Academy is also the only IATA Regional Training Partner (RTP) and an Authorised Training Centre (ATC) in Bahrain.